Società Sportiva Dilettantistica Rugby Roma Olimpic (italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

 for Amateur Sport Club Rugby Roma Olimpic ) are an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 professional rugby union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 team.
Based in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, the senior team competed in the Italian top tier competition, the Super 10

Super 10 (Italian premiership)

The withdrawal of Viadana and Benetton Treviso from the league has been compounded by club mergers. Rugby Viadana, Gran Parma and Colorno have merged to form GranDucato Rugby. Overmach Parma and Noceto have merged to form Crociati, both new clubs to be based in Parma. These changes created 2...

.
Rugby Roma's home ground was the Tre Fontane Stadium, located in the Roman south-western suburb of EUR

Esposizione Universale Roma

EUR is a residential and business district in Rome, Italy, located south of the city center. The area was originally chosen in 1930s as the site for the 1942 world's fair which Benito Mussolini planned to open to celebrate twenty years of Fascism. EUR was also designed to direct the expansion of...

.

The club have won 5 Italian titles, in 1935, 1937, 1948, 1949 and 2000, and have competed in the 2000-01 Heineken Cup

2000-01 Heineken Cup

The 2000–01 Heineken Cup was the sixth edition of the Heineken Cup. Competing teams from France, Ireland, Italy, Wales, England and Scotland, were divided into six pools of four, in which teams played home and away matches against each other...

, though losing all the matches in their 1st stage pool.

In 2010 Rugby Roma's head coaches were Danie De Villiers and Jaco Stoumann

History

The team was founded in October 1930, from the ashes of A.S.Roma Rugby (1929) and Lazio Rugby (1928), clubs associated with the football clubs of the Italian capital, when, after two seasons bankruptcy, under the management of the soccer clubs the decision was taken to form a separate organisation devoted to Rugby. The colours adopted were those of the San Isidro Athletic Club: black and white.

The new team were soon successful, winning the championship in the 1934-35 season and again in 1936-37, before financial difficulties restricted ambitions during the war years.

A resurgent post war team were champions again in 1948 and 1949, before further lean years throughout the fifties and sixties, during which the team were relegated.

The subsequent years saw the arrival of a new coach (Dick Greenwood

Dick Greenwood

John Richard Heaton Greenwood is a former rugby union international flanker, captain of Waterloo, Cambridge University, Lancashire and England as well as national coach...

 ) during the 70's. The club also toured East Africa in 1976, playing games against teams like East Africa

East Africa rugby union team

Established in 1950, The East Africa rugby union team is a multi-national rugby union team drawing players from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, though the vast majority of these came from Kenya which has traditionally been the strongest rugby playing nation in this part of the world...

 and Scorpions RFC

Scorpions RFC

The Scorpions RFC is an invitation rugby team in East Africa that was established upon principles that have many parallels with the Barbarian F.C. in terms of values, playing style, selection policy and the lack of a home ground...

. Rugby Roma qualified for the Italian play-offs in 1985, before further difficulties resulted in another relegation.

The next boom period led to All-black imports, victory in the Italian cup in 1998 and a fifth championship in 2000 before yet another financial crisis resulted in relegation once more.

After narrowly missing out in successive years, in the 2008-2009 season the club returned to the top tier of Italian Rugby. In 2009 they joined with Capitolina to form Futura Park Rugby Roma.

In the spring of 2011 the club closed down as a result of financial difficulties.

Current squad